This from Ad Age:
Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Eddie Lampert has demoted Sears CEO Alan Lacy, replacing him with former Kmart CEO Aylwin Lewis, while expanding his own role in day-to-day merchandising and marketing duties.
Analysts and industry watchers lambasted Mr. Lampert’s move to take a more active role in merging marketing at Sears and Kmart, saying the hedge-fund manager and financier, whose company ESL Investments orchestrated the Sears/Kmart merger, should stick to what he knows best.
“Lampert is a smart guy, but what makes him think he is qualified to do this?” asked George Whalin of Retail Management Consultants of San Diego. “I think this is about Lampert being a control freak. The competence of the retailers he’s competing against — Wal-Mart and Target — all have highly experienced people handling merchandising and marketing right now. This is clearly not for people who don’t know what they are doing.”
At this rate, who knows—maybe he’ll be head of FEMA next week.
